AOL Says Content Is Its Future

AOL, for many consumers, still conjures up dial-up modem squawks and the “You’ve got mail” greeting, but its future lies in Engadget, TMZ and the rest of its Web properties, its chief executive said Monday.

Tim Armstrong

“Content really is the future of what is going to drive AOL,” Tim Armstrong said at Mixx, an online-advertising conference in New York. “If the revolution is starting, the revolution, for us, is content.”

Phase 1 of the Internet, during the ’90s, was primarily about access, he said. Then came Phase 2, occurring this decade, which has focused on platforms such as Google and Facebook. The next phase will be about news, entertainment and video all going through those pipes, and benefiting from platforms like Facebook that help consumers find and share information quickly, he said.

To underscore his point to a room full of advertisers and agency execs, Mr. Armstrong played a reel of A-list celebrities, including Will Smith, Lady Gaga, Matt Damon, Tyra Banks and Scarlett Johansson, who have appeared on AOL properties such as Moviefone and AOL Music. It ended with a shot of Warren Buffett, who is appearing in a Web cartoon series “Secret Millionaire’s Club” will debut on AOL later this year or next.

AOL will serve as an umbrella brand for its sites, similar to the way Disney has developed ABC and ESPN as extensions of its brand, Mr. Armstrong added. “Fragmentation is our friend.”